Russell Buckley and Carlo Longino of Mobhappy suggest that bloggers should post some sort of advisory about their openness (and closedness?) to receiving pitches about products and services.
They created three logos that could be posted on a blog to indicate that the blogger is: 1) open to pitches; 2) not open to pitches, or 3) open to pitches, with conditions.
<>
I sort like this idea, though I think the designs the Mobhappy guys came up with are too big and ugly.
What I would rather have is a prominent link on blogs that are likely to attract pitches that link to a short explanation of the preferred method of receiving pitches, the general kinds of things the person would be interested in hearing about, and the kind of pitching behaviour that will prompt the blogger to publicly shame the pitcher. Anyone who doesn't want pitches could have a "I do not accept pitches" button on their site.
I get offered the opportunity to expose myself to marketing pitches on a weekly basis. Sites that offer me free information, or an online service, or even just online registration, routinely invite me to open the floodgates from their marketing department. I rarely allow such pitches, because I don't trust the companies to show discretion and to only contact me when they truly have something useful to report.
I suspect if people adopted something like this, most blogs would come under the "don't accept pitches" or "pitches, with conditions" categories. The only ones likely to indicate they're open to any and all pitches are bloggers who don't currently receive much e-mail.
Comments